The Besaid Outbreak and the Reunion
by AquaDimaondDust
Summary: Lulu has been left with almost nothing but grief after an accident occurred at the Besaid Temple of the Fayth, which has left her as a single parent to raise Vidina alone. However, now fiends are attacking the village once again, and its up to Lulu to rise up and stop them. Will her powerful black magic be enough, or will she fall just as 'he' did, too? (Lulu x Tidus ship)


(I originally wrote a one-shot fanfic called 'A Night on the Small Island' which shipped Tidus and Lulu. However, I had, as of this writing, one reviewer who seemed to enjoy it and wanted a follow-up. User Littlebrwk, here you go. This is the first chapter.)

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It had been how many years now? Lulu was usually good at keeping up with time that passed, but with momma duty as her number one goal, the poor black mage could barely keep up with anything that didn't have to do with her newly born baby. But she did indefinitely remember the young man who had traveled with them during their time on guarding Yuna on her pilgrimage, the young man who eventually would take up the role of guardian as well, whether it was to be close to Yuna or he had a more deeper motive for his choice. And she, along with many others, did indeed miss him...Especially after a few private moments the two had together where they discussed many different subjects and topics, the alone time that led Lulu into believing that perhaps her initial perception of him was harsh and too judgmental.

She recalled the moment they shared together while everyone else was asleep outside of the travel agency when he had discovered the small island that lied a bit off into the distance. She recalled, what had happened on that said island, that she came to explore with him.

Lulu had imagined things happening very differently in the back of her mind.  
A part of her felt a sense of guilt and wrong-doing for the night on that island, and the feelings of wrong-doing only persisted as her thoughts of him grew and she desired that closeness she felt, to be there always.

Why did she feel this way? Well, it was obvious to anyone who had fully functioning eyes and a half-working brain that Yuna had taken a liking to the athletic blonde. Because Yuna had taken a liking to him very early on after they had conversed together outside the temple of the Fayth in Besaid, and her crushing only grew more significant as her pilgrimage continued and allowed the two teenagers to blossom their friendship together.  
The black mage saw this easily, and it made her feel a strong sense of selfishness that left a bitter taste on her tongue; because she too had blossomed feelings of her own during the course of that grueling journey together with him.

Another path had been taken, and she didn't get the fairytale ending that she had hoped for.  
She was at least happy for Yuna that the Summoner and Tidus were growing closer together, even if it made her heartache a bit. But it was happy to see someone she cared so much for happy.  
And in the end, she herself ended up falling in love with the one person she had never expected to; the underdog Captain of the Besaid Aurochs, Wakka.

The sun had melted down into the sky, causing a mixture of canvas-like colors to fill the sky; tangerine streaks tangoing with gentle hints of lavender and some just barely catchable raspberry red; all of which cast down and reflected from the calm waves of the beach while the sun drifted in what was its final hours before the moon would overtake its place.

Lulu was watching from the shores; her demon-red eyes just staring off into the orange-tinted waves, nothing to distract her thoughts, leading the way for the black mage to easily become lost in the quiet ambiance of the water.

"It certainly has been one long journey," murmured the soft-voiced mage. "I think we've all lost a lot over the years, with Sin being the most responsible for many of our loses. And yet..." Her eyes soon cast down, gazing at the small child in her arms who was dressed in traditional Al Bhed clothes. "I feel as though I'm the one who has lost the most."

Three weeks ago, Yuna had arrived in Besaid after the Gullwings had received an emergency distress signal from the island. The island was under attack by the aeon Valefor, who was Yuna's very first aeon and was the one who had forged the closest relationship with the former Summoner. Valefor and a large swarm of fiends were attacking the sacred temple that honored the other Summoners with statues, and a few of the Besaidians had gone to try and stop the fiends that poured out from the temple, with one of the brave few being the former captain of the Aurochs, Wakka himself.

Of course, the Gullwings had saved the day and defeated all of the fiends before Yuna and her cousin Rikku and their friend Paine, proceeded to battle Valefor with no other option. But...It came at a loss: The Gullwings had arrived a little too late to lend Wakka their aid, and the athlete used every ounce of his strength to protect Besaid using his trusty blitzball.

Lulu had already suffered too many losses as it was. But losing her husband, and the one who helped create little Vidina? It hurt far worse than even the most powerful celestial weapon in the world.

Lulu sighed to herself; eyes returning back out to the sea while she lowered herself towards her wooden tiki chair and ran a soft hand along the scalp of Vidina who still had yet to open his eyes, but was suckling her exposed left breast. She smiled for a moment, even if it was brief, and hugged her tiny child softly. At least she still had Vidina, even if she knew he would be growing up without a father in his life...Just as Chappu, her first love, had.

"Are you ready for your nap, Vidina?" Inquired Lulu while she nuzzled the side of her head into the child. "Let's head back to the village."

Lulu rose from her chair while holding Vidina carefully against her bosom and started off in the soft beach sands while the water nearly receded towards her black slippers, and she gazed at the sun that was now almost completely out of sight.

Many of the Besaidian villagers had begged her not to venture outside of the village; they were worried about not just Lulu, but more so her son. It was dangerous to carry a child through the outskirts of Besaid, no matter how powerful Lulu had grown from her journey with Yuna and the others. All it could take would be one attack from a lupine or a flan and Vidina would be dead.

Lulu knew the risks, which was why she never journeyed alone.

"Miss Lulu!" A panicked voice called out to her from the distance before a shirtless man with deeply browned skin and blonde hair, dressed in the nostalgic yellow and blue trademark colors of the Aurochs, came running towards her.

"Jassu," Lulu plainly replied.

"Are you ready to head back to Besaid village?" Inquired Jassu who took a moment to throw his head between his thighs and pant in a nearly exaggerated manner.

"Yes," Lulu nodded her head while she propped Vidina up a bit, over her big, mostly exposed, breast.

"Right," Jassu rose his upper body back up. He stayed beside Lulu as they headed down the slightly narrow walls that opened up leading to the beach area, and the two returned back to the multi-path area where the ancient machina ruin cave lied at.

Lulu gazed over at the machina cave, her eyes seeming to linger piercingly on it.

"Is something wrong, Miss Lulu?" Jassu turned his attention to her with a worried look.

"No, it's just..." Lulu was hesitating and her eyes looked almost weak. "That place, it's connected to Wakka and Chappu."

Jassu was starting to understand a little bit better now; he hadn't had it hit him, but he was remembering back when Wakka and they were younger and they all played together with Chappu. Wakka and Chappu used to play together in that cave. And Chappu, Chappu had also taunted and teased Wakka back then, saying that he had found a sphere back in the cave of their parents, which Wakka never even inquired him on because he was too 'boneheaded' to let his little brother win and draw him in by his curiosity about the sphere.

"Jassu, I know I haven't said it enough, but thank you for escorting me and Vidina to and fro Besaid."

"It's nothin', Miss Lulu. Cap'n Wakka would do the same, ya? It's the least I can do."

Lulu couldn't bring herself to comment any further after hearing that; it was still really difficult to even bring herself to talk about Wakka, knowing that she would never see him again, truly. But she did, however, take some comfort knowing that she had spheres of him that they had recorded together, both of their wedding together, and the other light moments that they shared together. And even if those were never quite enough, she knew she could head over to the Farplane to see a false image of him generated by the pyreflies.

"Sometimes I wonder if there was something I could have done," Lulu somberly said. "Perhaps if I had just put Vidina in the care of one of the villagers and I had headed into the temple myself, he would still be here right now, laughing like the carefree goofball he was, and telling corny jokes."

Jassu stopped as they reached the path that led back to the road to Besaid.

"I know how you feel," Jassu said. "I feel like I could have done something more too, ya? I keep makin' the same excuse that there just wasn't much time, and I couldn't round up the boys in time to offer Cap'n the proper support and defense he needed."

"You did all you could," her voice grew even weaker, almost akin to a whisper. "You risked your own life to protect him, and that's more than could be said about most of the villagers. Not that...I hold it against them since many of them weren't trained for combat."

"Miss Lulu," he turned to face her. "Cap'n Wakka may be gone, but me and the Aurochs have taken a vow to become strong just like him. Being ready for blitzball and its season isn't enough anymore, now that we see what kind of danger could happen? We're training with Beclem to be ready for battle just like the Cap'n. I've already been practicing my Venom Shot to use it against a fiend, and I'm getting pretty good at kicking a ball!"

Lulu half-laughed at Jassu's dedication and determination.  
Wakka would be proud.

"Thank you, Jassu," she muttered. "Besaid needs more defenders. It is a tiny island, yes...But one never knows when the unexpected could rear itself."

They returned back to Besaid and by the time they were walking towards the gates of the village, the moon had already come out and the stars were lighting the night in unison with the large white orb.

Jassu and one of the elderly, roaming villagers slid the middle half of the gate closed.

The villagers had created another part to the gate to completely seal off the outside from possible fiends who may think to infiltrate the village while everyone was asleep, an idea that had occurred to them after the attack took place in the temple. And every night, at least two of the villagers would stay up to close the gate before the village could enjoy a fully peaceful and protected night.

"Goodnight, Miss Lulu," Jassu waved to her once the gate was locked up.

"Goodnight, Jassu. And Mister Botzu, I hope you have a pleasant night as well."

"Goodnight, Lady Lulu. And goodnight to you, Jassu," the elderly man said to them both.

Lulu returned to her hut/very small round house and lowered her plump backside onto the couch, where she then pulled Vidina's portable cradle towards her and placed the small child in the tiny rocking bed and covered him up with a few good layers of sheets and one single baby-blanket, so he would stay comfortable without becoming too hot from the heat.

"Goodnight, my sweet little angel." And she pressed her pout against the child's head, leaving behind a fresh deep-purple lipstick mark before relaxing on the couch.

Due to the fact, almost none of the houses in Besaid had doors and only utilized cloth as a method of warding off the harshness of the Besaid sun, the bits of light that slipped into Lulu's small and modest house had her pretty wide awake. Not only that beautiful moonlight and the newly installed pot-torches but her thoughts of Wakka and the nagging regret that she wasn't there to help him fight off the droves of fiends.

"It's so late," Lulu's eyes stared at the gentle flapping linen that defended her house from the heat. "And yet...I can't seem to clear my mind enough to rest properly."

Part of her was yearning to return to the beach area. But she had no one to look after Vidina in her absence since this was the time that most of the villagers headed to bed. Well, except the Aurochs who would spend a good few hours into the night training in blitzball until the stroke of midnight when they would all crash and sleep harder than a shoopuff.

It wasn't just loneliness that plagued her, either.

The sexual fulfillment was also lacking with Wakka no longer being there. She missed that; she missed the pleasure and the intimacy, and she knew that she couldn't reenact that feeling of intimacy by herself, it wasn't the same trying to self-please oneself.

The mage threw her head back against the headrest of the couch and pushed out a long, frustrated sigh.

"Why did you have to be so stupid?" Her eyes grew weaker, and she felt a sense of heaviness. "Why did you have to be so noble the way you did? You could have just waited until the other Aurochs had arrived to offer you their aid, or until word got to the allied Youth League back in Luca. Why did you just go at it alone, just...Why, Wakka? The Gullwings were already on their way, if only...If only..."

Lulu's emotions came in like a tidal wave and the black mage, who once believed she had grown so strong that emotional scenarios couldn't touch her as they once did when she was a teen, was reduced to tears as her head slumped forward to her plump breasts.

"If only we had more backup," her voiced cracked. "If only we had the others here."

She had kept re-imagining the scene playing out differently; her mind throwing in the people she had adventured together with, all being there and fighting off wave after wave of fiends like in the days before. Sir Auron who Yuna finally gave a proper sending to after the conclusion of their journey, Rikku, Kimahri, Yuna, and yes...Even 'him' who also was no longer around.

She sobbed, sobbed and sobbed. She wasn't even sure how long she had been crying, but at last she couldn't muster any more tears and Lulu's eyes were even redder than they usually were, with her spilling breasts wet and fresh from nearly endless tears, and the black mage had at last finally felt tiredness and exhaustion set in with her mind finally winding down.

Lulu propped her pillow up on the couch and placed her head on it, eyes closing and hands lying at her side as she adjusted drifted off to sleep.

"Hey, Lulu," that familiar cocky and confident youthful voice echoed her ears.

Lulu kicked up a small dust storm of sand, walking towards the edge of the beach where the little storage tents/huts rested by the large and thick growing plants, and she stopped once she reached the edge near the start of the docks, her eyes turning to gaze around for the familiar voice that had, at one time, frustrated her to no end.

"Where are you?" The black mage questioned, confused.

"I'm right here," that same voice again spoke, but this time sounding closer to laughing.

"I don't see you."

"Look behind you."

Lulu turned around fully, and that's when she was pulled in close and her breasts brushed up against a set of well-developed and trained abs which lurked from a very complex garment emblazoned with that ancient logo that should have been lost to the past. And Lulu's eyes shone like a beautiful set of Al Bhed lights, her lips straining to retain that look of neutrality but failing quite miserably.

"Is it really you, or...Is this some cruel prank by pyreflies?" The mage swallowed.

"It's really me," was the answer she received. "Can't you tell by the way I feel?"

"...I thought I would never see you again." Her head bumped into his chest while her eyes shut.

"Lulu, I'm sorry...It's...It's complicated to explain, but the truth is, this whole time I've been gone all these years, I've been somewhere sleeping."

"Sleeping?" Her eyes slid open again. "Where? And...I don't understand."

"Like I said, it's complicated. I don't think I could explain it very well even if I wanted to," the voice laughed.

"I've been thinking about you a lot," confessed the black mage. "All the time we spent together, back on that island...When we...Well. And when we journeyed to Macalania Temple together, and I rode with you on the back of the snow machina, when we talked about Sin together."

"I'm here now," Lulu was pulled closer into the orangish tanned chest, causing her pale-white skin to fill with warmth. "Don't be sad."

Lulu hesitated for a moment, battling against the wash of emotions that were nearly gushing out of her, but she finally surrendered to them and she tossed her arms around him, breathing a breath of relief.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to see you again, Tidus."

"Hey, Lu!" Another voice from within the near distance called her.

Lulu's eyes quickly shot open when she heard the voice; her lips slipping out a gasp and her attention divided and deterred towards that uniquely-accented voice. And Lulu pulled away from the arms of the young teenage athlete, her eyes looking around restlessly for the source of the voice that she knew so well.

"Wakka?" That was certainly his voice.

"Lu, what's wrong?" His voice again called to her.

"Hey, Lulu, something wrong?" Tidus asked from behind her.

"Wakka, where are you? I don't see you anywhere, but I can hear you."

"I'm right here, Lu, ya? Can't you see me?"

"Lulu, what is it?" Tidus placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't-," but before she was able to complete her sentence, there in front of her materialized Wakka.

Conflictions were stirring inside her as Lulu was surrounded by the two men who she loved the most.

"Lulu, you look... Why are you lookin' at me that way? Are you...Are you crying?"

"N-no! Don't be ridiculous, Wakka; I'm not crying." She scoffed, trying to put on a front.

"Hey, Lulu, what's going on with you? Who are you talking to and...Hey, are you crying?" Tidus asked.

Lulu didn't know what to do; she had Tidus again, and he was right behind her ready to embrace her and wanted to make up for lost time. And she missed him, she missed him dearly since he was the one she hadn't seen in the longest period of time and the second person she shared an intimate moment with. But then, on the other hand, there was Wakka, her husband and the father of their child Vidina, who had met his demise three weeks ago while he was fending off the fiends.

"It's okay, Lu. I'm here, ya? You don't have to cry anymore." Wakka reached his hand out to her.

"Hey, come on now, Lulu. You're too beautiful to cry." Tidus continued to try and cheer her up.

"I...I don't know what to..." She was stumped for words. But the tears were certainly there.

"Lulu, I didn't know you were here too! It's so nice to see you," a sweet, soft female voice chimed.

Lulu's eyes doubled in size and she cast her blurred gaze to the direction of Yuna who had just walked up to them; smiling beautifully like the world was nothing but sunshine and rainbows.

"Yuna, what are you-,"

"I flew back here in the Celsius, Rikku and Paine are waiting near the cave. We were told you had come to the beach again, and well, we wanted to come pay you a visit and see how you were doing. We feel bad we don't visit so often...So, I wanted to make another trip back to Besaid."

Lulu diverted her gaze from Yuna, then looked over at Tidus, then back at Yuna gain, then Wakka, and then she just threw her eyes towards the direction of the stilled waves.

"Is that Tidus?" Lulu could see the genuine excitement and shock on Yuna's face when the brunette blurted this out.  
But the weirdest thing was, Tidus didn't even seem to be paying much mind to Yuna, even though Lulu knew that Tidus was very smitten by the former Summoner. So to her, this kind of reaction was a bit out of the ordinary, to say the least.

Lulu was hugged from behind, and she could feel the warm flesh from the Abe's star hitting her neck.

As she stood there, Lulu witnessed a change in Yuna's expression and saw a side of her that she rarely ever saw, since Yuna was such a kind, gentle and patient type of person: Yuna was visibly growing angry...And jealous, one might even go so far as to say. With her eyes taking upon a hardened look before they pulled from Tidus, and then focused on Lulu who had the guiltiest look on her face.

"Yuna I can expla-,"

"Somethin' bothering you, Lu? You said something about Yuna, but I don't see her anywhere."

"You can explain?" Yuna, voice quite sharp in tone, finished for her. "Explain to me why he's leaning over you in the same way that he leaned over me when I told him I loved him, right when he was about to depart from us and jump off the Fahrenheit?"

Words wouldn't even come at that point, and Lulu's pathetic expression only grew.

"Hey, why aren't you looking at me, are you ignoring me for her? I've missed you the most! I've never stopped thinking about you in the entirety that you were gone. PLEASE, why won't you say something back to me?" Yuna, looking at Tidus now, frustratedly stomped her foot.

"Lulu's the only one I want in my life," Tidus shockingly announced.

Lulu's heart thudded immensely, but it wasn't doing so in any kind of way that was positive, and it was from the guilt that she had stolen his affections away from Yuna.

"Lu, I've really missed you. Can we head back to the village? I miss the times that the two of us would just laze around cuddled up and telling stories together."

Lulu brought her hands up to her ears; palms pressing quite firmly against her ears to try and block any kind of sound that she may otherwise hear. And soon the three voices just meshed into one and they just started talking to her all at once, becoming too much for the black mage to bear and Lulu soon slumped down to her knees shaking her head vigorously. Finally, she just ended up yelling as loud as she could.

The voices began to fade into muteness...And she opened her eyes, now on the floor next to Vidina's cradle.

"What...?" Lulu's eyes scurried around the inside of her home. "So it was all a dream."

It was bittersweet, really. She did get to see Wakka and Tidus again, but it went from a pleasant dream to an outright nightmare, and she was now thankful that the dream had ended.

Lulu moved a hand to her hefty breast, palm pressing against that extremely soft flesh, feeling her racing heart.  
That dream had done a doozy on her.

She could see glimpses of light seeping in from the linen cloth: It was morning.

Lulu lifted herself off of the floor that she had apparently rolled off onto at some point during her nightmare, and managed to have slept long enough up until this point, and then she dusted her Gothic overwhelming-lengthed black dress and dusted off any dust or other uncleanliness that may have gotten on her breasts while she was on the floor. And she peered over the cradle to look at Vidina, who, much to her surprise, had slept the entirety undisturbed.

She didn't want to wake the baby just yet, so she let him sleep.

Lulu propped herself back onto the couch, staring at the gently blowing portière and resting her hands on her lap.

"What sort of things should I do today?" The black mage thought out loud.

But then again, what all was there really TO do? She was a single mother who barely had enough time to spend on herself for anything. Not that she resented Vidina of course, she loved her son to pieces even if he sometimes kept her wide awake at night having a fit or wanting to feed again, but she couldn't help but feel frustrated at the difficulty she had in planning some time for herself. Or maybe she was just longing for some action, because, after all, that was what she had known for most of her life since Summoners were such a crucial part of the world before the TRUE Eternal Calm came.

"The Eternal Calm..." She mused. "Yuna marked the true era of peace; she was the last Summoner and it all ended, and began, with her."

After a few moments, her home was stormed into by a very anxious looking Jassu. He was all drenched in sweat from face to chest, looking like he had just seen the reemergence of Sin and was once again gasping for breath, clearly having run quite the distance to get back to Lulu's house.

"Jassu?" Lulu half narrowed her brows.

"Miss Lulu, forgive me for barging in so early in the morning, but! But it's urgent, I had to see you."

"What's wrong, has something happened outside?" Lulu quickly lifted from the couch.

"From the 'outside', yes! It's coming from outside of the village, the fiends are starting up again."

She couldn't believe it! She thought the fiend problem had died down when the Gullwings had swung by to exterminate them all, but now she was being told that the fiends were back at it again and were trying to break into the village from the outside? What was even happening to Spira?

"We have little defense," she stated. "With Wakka gone, there aren't many fighters."

"Me and the Aurochs are gonna try to get rid of them," Jassu looked towards the portière.

"You mustn't fight them by yourselves. The Aurochs aren't seasoned to battling."

"What else are we supposed to do? Someone's gotta do somethin'."

"Jassu," she shuffled towards him. "Go get Mister Botzu, tell him I need him to watch over Vidina."

"B—but Miss Lulu!" Jassu leaned stepped forward; hands throwing into the air. "What are you-"

"Besaid is a small island with no militia of its own. We, the villagers, are all it has and there is no longer a Summoner to depend on for solving its problems. Many are not prepared for real threats such as this, and it shows in their lack of combat skill. The people of Besaid are a peaceful, laxed people. Therefore," she paused, staring him piercingly in the face enigmatically. "Therefore I will fight this time."

"I can't let you do that, Miss Lulu. Cap'n Wakka wouldn't want that."

"Would Wakka want to see the village overrun by the fiends, and everyone mauled?" Lulu disputed.

"W-well, no ma'am, but-,"

"There is no room for buts in this situation, Jassu," her eyes glanced over towards Vidina. "I love my child with all my heart and I want to see him grow up to be big and strong, maybe even become a blitzball player and the future Captain of the Besaid Aurochs, like his father. But I need to have that future for him secured, because if the fiends breach the gate, there will be very little from stopping them reaching my house...And my baby."

"...I understand," Jassu gave a reluctant nod. "Then, let us go together. There's a way out of the Besaid village gates, it's a secret, but Chappu showed it to us when we were all just children. Only I, the Aurochs, and Cap'n Wakka know about it."

"Please lead me to this secret exit. But first, we need to find Mister Botzu."

Lulu placed her hands on Vidina's cradle and pushed it out of the house, with Jassu staying a few steps ahead of her just in case, just IN CASE any fiend had already broken the gate down and infiltrated the village. And the two headed towards the square of the village where they saw Mister Botzu, who looked quite stricken with fear over the situation at hand.

"Lady Lulu, it's not safe to be out here," the old man scolded.

"There isn't much time to talk," Lulu looked towards the gate. "I need you to watch over my son."

"Lady Lulu, are you planning on fighting the fiends?"

"I am," she answered nonchalantly.

"I...Wish that you wouldn't, but I'm in no position to talk because this village hasn't many defenders. Oh, if I wasn't so old and feeble, I would go out there and show those fiends a thing or two like I did in my prime years! ...But I'll leave this up to you and the Aurochs. Just please, be careful."

"I won't end up like Wakka," she promised.

Lulu placed all of her attention on the child in the cradle for a moment; she placed one hand on his face, while the other reached down to gently touch one of the tiny little hands that rested carefully at his side and she leaned over towards the cradle with her face lingering just a few inches from the tiny baby's face. "Mommy loves you, Vidina. And I promise I'll be back very soon." And then she planted a small kiss on Vidina's forehead before pulling away.

Lulu pressed her the cradle towards Mister Botzu and after he placed his hands on the bars, she and Jassu headed towards the old, destroyed house that was between the item shop and the Crusaders resting inn and she and Jassu scoured around the small little section of space before he led her through part of the remains of the house and led her to a long path of grass.

Lulu didn't even know that there was a small entrance to the village. She only knew of the main entrance, the gate.

They reached the back of the tall grass that was enclosed by walls that were presumably part of the house that Sin had destroyed, and they soon came to a cellar that housed plenty of belongings from the owner of the house and presumably, their family. And after a while of navigating around the old, dark and damp cellar they came to another door that was connected to a short tunnel that ended with a door with a mechanism.

Lulu had seen some mechanisms like this before. So she simply rose a hand up along with her Cait Sith doll and struck the mechanism with a jolt of thunder, causing the door to open for the two.

They were outside now, and already they could see the long line of fiends who were leading a charge to Besaid island, from the front entrance.

"The other members of the Aurochs should be over there near the front, fighting the fiends. First, we should close the door here, we can get back in again by you using your thunder spell on the mechanism again, then we'll head over there to join the others," Jassu announced.

"Smart thinking. That will keep the fiends from getting in too easily."

After Lulu hit the mechanism with another thunder spell, the pair sneaked around from the back of the island and slowly approached the front where they caught sight of a flan that had absorbed a few other flans and was ruthlessly pounding on the gate with its entire gelatinous blobby body, with a dingo closely behind it, growling and howling.

"They seem quite adamant on breaking inside," Lulu furrowed her brows.

"Did you hear that?" Jassu sprinted ahead of her for about three seconds before stopping and then placing a hand above his head with his fingers going straight across like a shade or visor. "That was Botta's voice! I think the Aurochs are in trouble."

"Then, we should hurry to the front."

When they did arrive at the front, the Aurochs were struggling against the onslaught of fiends who were blocked off the path from the Besaid beach.

Lulu and her Cait Sith doll cast a Thundara spell to take out the water flan who was now nearing breaching the gate, and it only took that one single bolt of thunder to force the flan to self-inflate and sink back to the gooey mess that it was before finally just dispersing into pyreflies and vanish from sight.

But then the lupine that had been waiting behind it came up, charging towards at full-speed with its head pressed forward, going to hit the gate with a charged-headbutt.

Jassu's studded blue and grayish-white ball appeared out of nowhere and he held it tucked beneath his armpit like Wakka, only throw the ball firmly and hit the dingo in the head with it right as the wolf-fiend bashed its head into the gate and caused it to wobble.  
But the ball had done only subpar damage, given that Jassu hadn't been training for physical combat outside of the blitzdome, very long.

"Is everyone all right?"

"Miss Lulu?!" The Aurochs looked at her, surprised to even see her.

"Jassu told me that the village was being attacked from the outside by fiends, "she explained. "So I've come to offer some help in driving them off."

The Aurochs weren't swift to object; if anything they were eager to accept her help since they very-well knew that none of them stood a chance against the fiends on their own and that Lulu, having traveled the world not only with Lady Yuna during her pilgrimage but other Summoners as well back in her teenage years, was quite the proficient and capable black mage.

"I'll take care of the ones here," she averted her gaze from the Aurochs and then put her attention on the miles-long line of fiends, some of who were leaving the single line and heading straight for them. "Jassu and the rest of you will take care of the ones in the back; it looks like they've grown tired of waiting and are heading straight over here. If they reached this point, the gate won't last long."

"Come on, let's go!" Jassu threw his arm up into the air, rallying the other boys and darting towards the back near the starting line of fiends.

Lulu had never been in a spot where she had to fight solo before. There was only ever once she could remember where she was forced to fight along, and that was when she and the other guardians, as well as Yuna, were tossed into the Via Purifico at Bevelle. So fighting alone was a little unnerving, but the stakes were too high to fall here and she didn't dare want to imagine what would most certainly happen to Vidina if the fiends were allowed to infiltrate the village.

The dingo had turned its attention to Lulu at this point; no longer focused on the many scents it could smell coming from the village; and the wolf-fiend growled and bore its teeth at her, only to take off full-blast at her with the aim to attack her with its razor-sharp teeth or claws.

Lulu was caught-off-guard; the lupine quite quick and agile and this left her open to be attacked, being scratched by the monster.  
But she retaliated by striking it with a blazing blast of Fira, taking the fiend down in one hit.

Perhaps it was a foolish decision to send all of the Aurochs to cut-off the fiends from the back because this had left Lulu fully vulnerable for any targeting. And as she was now starting to see, the fiends were directing their attention to her and were coming to her all at once. She had very little time to even think about what her next move or spell would be and knew she had to be fast.

Two flans, two dingos and a garuda.

Going for Doublecast would knock out the two flans in no-times flat, but then that would leave her open for attack from the dingos and then the most dangerous one of all: The heavy-hitting garuda.

Lulu went for Doublecast, attacking in rapid succession and wasting the two water flans upon hit.  
But this had left her vulnerable for attack, and the two dingos took advantage of the opportunity and ran up to her, both biting her swiftly only to run back to their original spot while the garuda swooped in, slamming into her with a downward peak that felt more like a skull-splitting headbutt.

"If there are many more garudas waiting," Lulu reached up a hand to touch her temple, rubbing it from where she had taken the head peck from the beast. "Then I may be in some trouble."

From within the distance, she could hear the Aurochs. She could hear their balls striking the enemies, and she could even hear Botta who the most defense-oriented out of all them due to his tubby-size, starting to panic.

It was a terrible feeling, knowing that the Aurochs were in trouble and she couldn't go to help them because she had to defend the front.

"I wish Cap'n Wakka was here!" Cried a fear-consumed Datto, the one in the Aurochs who had a buzz-cut hairstyle and green headband around his head.

"The Cap'n's gone!" Stated an exasperated Letty, another one of the more darker-skinned members of the Aurochs who not only had a medium-sized fro, but also a scruffy connecting mustache and beard.

"All we have left now is Miss Lulu. We have to protect her, her and Vidina," remarked Jassu who gave another mighty throw of his blitzball slapping a water flan in the face with it, and doing almost no damage.

Eight of the fiends from the front had been felled, but as Lulu had deduced, the stronger fiends had been waiting for their chance for quite some time. And now the bosomy black mage saw the number of gorudas and the army of flans who were coming to join together and were no doubt planning to absorb each other so they could conjoin into one massive flan-like the first water flan who was attacking the gate...Something that, even now, Lulu found perplexing since she had never seen a water flan use that ability before and had only seen a small handful of flan merge.

Assaulted by two mid-grade water spells by the water flans, then attacked by not ONE goruda, by two, Lulu's endurance was finally starting to deplete and the black mage slumped forward slightly; her ripe pillowy breasts nearly spilling out of her dress and long, drawn-out pants escaping her mature, purple covered dipped pout.

Lulu returned to proper stance and her Cait Sith voodoo doll stayed ready at her side for another magic attack.

"It would seem that this is quite a dire situation. Very well...It's time to use my stronger spells."

Cait Sith was beginning to swell a large sum of magical power at this point; even if the human eye couldn't see it physically. And the cat-like doll began to move with Lulu as she skipped her elemental spells and went straight for one of her most devastating spells: Flare; the none-elemental spell that caused quite the impressive amount of damage regardless of one's magical defenses.

The whitish flame flared up from the ground from seemingly nowhere and grew into quite the wild flame as it hit the first garuda who was gearing up for an attack. Then Lulu cast another Flare, hitting that garuda again and vanquishing the creature reducing it to dispersing pyreflies.

"Looks like we took care of that water flan!" Datto announced to the world with an excited fist pump. "Now we need to take care of that stupid bird in our way and we can take care of the dingos, ya?."

"I can't help but worry about Miss Lulu! She's up there all alone, ya? I think one of us should go check on here." Insisted Jassu.

"But she instructed us to take care of the fiends back here," argued Letty.

Some assistance would have benefited Lulu greatly at that moment as the mage was finding it quite difficult to retain her dwindling energy and endurance, and by now, after having struck down two more flans and even that second garuda, she was nearly spent and this gave a perfect opportunity for a lone dingo to run up to her and land an attack that finally brought the black mage down and had her collapse onto the path.

This was the end. She had flung herself headfirst into battle, with her only allies those who barely a fleeting idea of what actual combat was, and, blinded in the beginning by her protective instincts, she realized much too late that she stood no chance against the prodigious numbers of fiends; there was simply no way that one person could fight them all off.

Her vision blurry like a focal effect, Lulu tried to summon whatever energy she still had left, while the fiends led a furious siege against the gate and caused it to begin to crack and chip off.

"Vidina!" The thought of her baby popped into her mind. "I can't let them get to him."

She went to try to rise to her feet, but Lulu didn't possess the strength and fell back down to the ground against; chin hitting the somewhere in-between the grassy ground and the natural road that led straight to the village entrance.

She could hear the voices of the Aurochs within the distance; they were calling her by name.

"Gullwings, go!" Lulu blinked when hearing these words being spoken. The Gullwings? Lulu thought they were long-gone on another mission. Yuna had explained the situation on everything, her abrupt disappearance without a word to anyone, and why she had been gone for so long without a word of her well-being to either she or even Wakka.

And it sounded like she and the others were quite busy with their sphere hunting, so why would they be back now? Unless things had finally come to a conclusion.

Lulu's eyes gazed upward where she saw the Celsius flying overhead.

Then she glanced around her, and very, very faintly, within the distance, she could see a few figures moving in at quite a rapid pace. One, she could make out unmistakably as Yuna, and the other one, although a little harder to see, was certainly Rikku.  
Yuna was already battle-ready; her bee pistols firing lightning-fast rounds with bullets flying into the fiends and striking them down point-blank.  
And Rikku too was gracefully flying through the fiends, her daggers easily shredding them to pieces while she nimbly evaded possible enemy attacks with a swift hop backwards.  
And then there was Paine: She wasn't as fast as the other two, but she was still more than able to dish out the attack, utilizing the power of her elemental sword attacks and also Sentinel here and there to protect Yuna and Rikku from any heavy hits, mitigating her own in the process.

Seeing them, Lulu lifted her lips into a weak smile and she chuckled.

Another one of the garudas were coming towards her now, and Lulu was absolutely in no condition to battle it this time. But before the winged monstrosity could act, out of seemingly nowhere came a speeding blitzball carrying quite the powerful wind-force, and hit the garuda smack-dab in the back of the head with such force.

But then the ball had retracted, flying back to wherever it came from before once again coming in and hitting the garuda again.

Lulu had only ever seen this move used by one person.

"Hey, hey, hey!" That nostalgia-inducing quote rang through her ears. But it wasn't until she heard the words: 'Let's blitz!' that her heart began to bump.

There, coming into view, she could see his face clearly. The same face she once found herself wanting to smack on several occasions, and, at a time, could hardly even stand to look at. It was him! And he was back. By some kind of miracle of the Fayth, he was finally back.

"Hey, Lulu!" that happy-go-lucky voice was just brimming with laughter, "never thought I'd see you taking a dirt nap! Why don't you get back up and show these fiends some fireworks."

"You..."

"Me? Yeah, it's me!" He replied. "I'd love to tell you about everything, but right now, well, I'm sure you can see we've got some bigger fish to fry."

"I...I can't," Lulu drew her face away from his with a look of defeat lingering on her face. "I used up too much of my strength; I can't even stand up now, let alone cast another spell at them."

"Don't worry, I've got you covered!"

If he hadn't intervened the moment that he had, the mage knew that would have been her end.  
But if his arrival wasn't enough, the sports superstar went the extra mile for her, and he got in front of her, arm risen in the fashion of a guard, and he protected her from the damage, VIA Sentinel.

"Hey, how are things going over there?" A spunky voice called over to the two.

"Going pretty good," the athlete replied. "But I could use a partner to help me pull off my big move!"

"Ready, partner!" Yuna entered their view, her fingers hitting the trigger and launching another round from the hot tip of the barrel, causing dingos to collapse and fade away into pyreflies.

Time seemed to come to a closed still, and Tidus, getting into a running position, made a dramatic sprint forward before unleashing a flurry of vicious slashes with the Brotherhood before delivering the final one with the sword launching upward before Tidus finally thrust his sword forth into the ground by the sharp-edge, leaving the Brotherhood's red ribbon flaring in the wind while he stepped up onto the edge of the hand-guard, and was thrown the blitzball ball by Yuna. He kicked the ball, the ball spinning at high-speeds towards before coming down like a miniature asteroid and causing a small explosion that caused massive damage and took down the fiends.

The Aurochs were coming into view now, accompanied by Rikku and Paine who were getting rid of more of the bothersome fiends.

"Lulu, I think you could use one of these," Yuna smiled softly and reached into the pockets of her cheek-exposing short-short jeans, pulling out an elixir that was seemingly tucked away in that extremely small amount of pocket-space.

Yuna uncorked the lid of the clear-bottle filled with green and lightish blue liquid and handed the bottle to the black mage, who downed it all in a single gulp.  
It revitalized both Lulu's magic and her strength and energy, and she rose from the ground with any sign of injuries gone as if they had never been there, to begin with.

"EVERYONE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?" It was Shinra's voice on a booming megaphone from the Celsius.

"Loud and clear," Yuna placed a hand above her eyes, over her temple, gazing up at the red airship.

"Roger!" Rikku and Paine said in unision.

"ALL RIGHT, GOOD! LISTEN UP...I NEED YOU TO STALL THE FIENDS A LITTLE LONGER. MY LATEST INVENTION NEEDS TIME TO DRAW POWER, BUT WHEN IT'S DONE? YOU CAN WIPE OUT THE FIENDS, BUT I NEED LULU'S HELP!"

Lulu moved her neck a little bit, eyes narrowing subtly, giving her a curious and suspicious look.

"I'll do anything that I can to help, of course. But what do you want me to do?" She asked, eyes focused on the big red airship.

Shinra explained what he needed her to do: He needed her to use Firaga on some high-tech super-stretchable tar that he had created. The tar, he said, was a one-time use thing, but that it would amplify Lulu's magic ability and the resulting blast from the fire and the tar would be strong enough to wipe out the entire horde of fiends, saving the village from their onslaught.

Lulu was quick to agree to the plan. But soon she found herself distracted as the gate was finally destroyed, and the fiends started marching into the village, causing a sea of panicked screams and cries from the villagers inside.

"They've breached the gate," Lulu murmured tonelessly.

Yuna walked towards her, her hands reaching for those of the Gothic-themed, older woman and her face all smiles as she cupped Lulu's hands and held them with her own. "Lulu, let us go in there and take care of the fiends. The Gullwings will take care of this."

"I appreciate the offer, but," Lulu's eyes hit the inside of the gate where she saw Mister Botzu backing up in fear before running towards the temple with the portable cradle that contained Vidina. "This is something I feel I must do, as a mother..."

"Mother?!" Was all Tidus could manage out of his mouth before Lulu went full-speed to the entrance.

"All right, Gullwings," Yuna placed a hand on her hip, bringing one hand stretched forward and pointing an index finger forward in a confident display. "You heard Shinra! It's our job to take out more of the fiends while he gets his invention all powered up."

"Consider us on it," Paine nonchalantly replied, nodding her head.

Tidus gave her a strong thumbs up. "They don't call me an ACE for nothing, you know!"

Lulu had intercepted the fiends, blocking off their approach to Mister Botzu and Vidina after had slowed them down with a simple water spell that was used for nothing more than to distract and draw their attention.

"Oh, Lady Lulu! Thank goodness you're here," Mister Botzu quivered.

"Just stand back," she defensively ordered, readying a spell. "They won't come any closer."

The fiends drew in her plan on directing their attention towards herself, having been a great success. Lulu took advantage of this chance, going for another Doublecast and conjuring up a powerful Waterga spell that created a strong geyser of water which burst upward, launching the fiends somewhat.

The two fiends went down from the two upper-tier multi-hit water spells, but she wasn't finished yet.

"How many of these creatures are there!?" Cried Mister Botzu.

Lulu went over the fiends, observing their numbers as they closed in on her, while a few others were heading towards the houses. "Remain calm, I have everything under control."

"Looks like you could use another hand," Rikku came running up with Jassu at her side, her hand waving back and forth frantically.

"Rikku, Jassu, thank you. Please, I have this spot under my control. But you need to stop the others who have separated from the group; they're heading into everyone's homes."

"Got it! Fiend exterminating now commences! Ooh, I should have brought the extermination hat that I stole from Brother," the Al Bhed giggled before running into the nearest house with her daggers drawn and making quick work of the dingo who nearly made its first strike on the young woman inside.

Pyreflies filled the blue sky, and the sounds of fiends roaring their death cries echoed among the small buildings of the village and even the Fayth temple's walls.

Lulu zapped the last two fiends, her Thundaga spell ensuring her victory.

Rikku sighed as she and Jassu had killed the fiends who had invaded the homes, and the village was safe.

Lulu, Rikku, and Jassu returned to the others outside of the village, but Lulu remained at the entrance, to ward off any of the fiends who may try to sneak in from the destroyed gate, as the others had already tried doing.

"ALL RIGHT! LISTEN UP, IT'S HIT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT POWER! WE'RE GOING TO PUT A SHIELD AROUND THE VILLAGE SO THERE'S NO RISK OF ANYONE GETTING HURT, THIS SHIELD WILL ALSO COVER THE GULLWINGS."

There was some humorous arguing that could be heard coming from the Celsius, VIA the megaphone; Shinra, Buddy, and Brother were all arguing. But Brother seemed to be the one who was arguing the most and the loudest, with Buddy actually trying to calm the situation, speaking to Brother, for one of those very rare times, in Al Bhed tongue.

"Just tell me when you're ready," Lulu simply stated, her patience thinning.

A huge green dome surrounded the village of Besaid while a smaller one formed a wall around Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Tidus, and the Aurochs, from every side.

"NOW!" Shinra shouted into the megaphone.

The tar-like substance began to appear from what seemed like thin-air, falling all over the fiends from above and covering them from-head-to-toe in the black mess.

Lulu and Cait Sith conjured up another Firaga spell and the immense wave of flame ignited the black. The flames gained a bit of a greenish-blue tint signifying the enhancement of Lulu's black magic spell, and the flames traveled along the black path lighting all the fiends on fire.

Once the flames had dispersed, all the fiends had been cleared from the area, not a single one left behind.

Yuna clapped her hands, she and Rikku both jumping up and down in short sprints."Lulu, you did it!"

Lulu shook her head, refusing to take all of the credit and praise. "No. We did it together; I couldn't have done this without all of your help."

"Uhh, speaking of our help, where's Wakka at?" Tidus dropped the elephant in the room.

A sea of gasps reacted in response to Tidus' words, and Yuna, Rikku, Paine and all of the Aurochs turned their eyes away.

Tidus, of course, was looking around at everyone, dumbfounded and more lost than an Al Bhed in the church of Yevon.

The look that Lulu gave him when he brought up Wakka's whereabouts, wasn't one of friendliness. Lulu was grabbed by impulse at that moment, and she returned his words with a venomous glare with her lips even seeming to form into a sour and very much bitter, shape.  
But then it must have sunk in after a few moments how she looking at him, and Lulu simply turned her back and headed back towards the steps of the temple of the Fayth where Mister Botzu and Vidina were.

* * *

(That's the end of part 1/chapter 1. Chapter 2 will be wrapping up everything. Unfortunately, everything became longer than I had originally planned and as a result, this had to be turned into a 2-part fanfic.)


End file.
